BYD could soon have some serious company in Australia.
Chinese brand Nio has just launched its BYD Atto 1 and Geely EX2 rivalling pint-sized electric car in Thailand, with a starting price of the equivalent to $35,000 in Australia.
This adds fuel to the fire of a potential Australian expansion, as Thailand is a fellow right-hand drive market.
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The Nio Firefly was approved for sale in Australia by the federal regulator back in August last year, which is often the final hurdle before a vehicle goes on sale.
The filings to federal government were updated in November when right-hand drive production was confirmed.
There have also been pre-production cars spied on Australian roads.
It has been radio silence on an Australian launch since then, but now that right-hand drive production and sales have commenced it could lob onto our roads soon.
CarsGuide has contacted Nio's global operations for more Australian details and will update the story with its response.
Homologation details published by the federal government last year show two variants will be offered in Australia.
Power comes from a single electric motor that makes 105kW and 200Nm, which is fed by a circa-42kWh Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery that provides a driving range of up to 330km via the benchmark WLTP test cycle.
It uses 14.5kWh/100km and offers 100kW DC charging for a 10-80 per cent charge in 29 minutes as well as either 7.0kW or 11kW AC charging with a vehicle-to-load (V2L) feature.
The Firefly also has the benefit of Nio's battery swap technology. This allows owners to simply swap the battery when it has run low instead of recharging it.
Nio claims this can take about five minutes, which is similar to refilling a petrol or diesel vehicle but not as expensive.
The Nio Firefly is a small hatchback measuring about four metres long, 1780mm wide and 1560mm high.
Homologation details published by the federal government hint that the Nio operation will be factory-backed with approval holders and contact details attributed to the head office in Shanghai, China.
No signs of a dealer network have been sighted in Australia, yet.
